Captain Jijo Joseph scored a hat-trick as Kerala made a powerful start to their Santosh Trophy campaign with a 5-0 win over Rajasthan at Manjeri in Malappuram on Saturday.
The home side coached by Bino George wasted several chances but they also managed to score some beautiful goals to entertain a packed house.
Jijo had put the hosts ahead in the 6th minute from a long free-kick that sailed past a hapless Maninder Singh in the Rajasthan goal.
Kerala soon got into the rhythm and created a flurry of chances. Jijo played a delightful defense-splitting ball, but Viknesh and Safnad got in each other's path and the chance was missed.
Viknesh so nearly made amends by winning a free-kick on the edge of the box. Jijo, however, could not curl it over the wall a second time.
Jijo failed to keep the ball down from inside a congested box as Kerala kept searching for a second.
Against the run of play, Rajasthan were presented with a golden chance but young striker Yuvraj Singh fired an outside-the-foot shot over with goalkeeper Midhun V unmoved.
At the other end, Maninder made a brave interception to parry a Viknesh effort.
But the hosts found their second soon after with Nijo Gilbert soring from a beautiful finish from the edge of the box. He took a touch to set himself up for a right-foot shot and curled a beauty into the top right corner.
Yuvraj had a half-chance, a rare one for Rajasthan, before the half-time whistle, but he failed to connect to a neat cross that found him free in the box.
After the break, Rajasthan left it more open at the back in their attempts to find a way back into the match and Kerala had an early chance from a counter.
Safnad set up Arjun Jayaraj, whose curler from distance missed the target.
But Jijo soon got his second after Saheef released him with a delightful through ball that he couldn't miss from a one-on-one position.
And a few minutes later, he got his hat-trick. He could have made it 4-0 for himself just a moment later but he placed a tame effort into Maninder's gloves.
Ajay Alex tapped in from a Maninder mistake and Kerala's dominant display had a five-star finish.
Result: Kerala 5 (Jijo Joseph 6, 57, 62, Nijo Gilbert 38, Ajay Alex 81) bt Rajasthan 0.
